Core web vitals: Google ranking factor

Every 1-2 years , the Google search engine updates its algorithms to improve the quality of search results. Last year , Google announced the launch of a new update – Core Web Vitals, which began operating in the summer of 2021. We explain what to expect from the algorithm and how these changes will affect Google Ads advertising .

Core Web Vitals, in simple terms, are Google’s ranking factors. Their main function is to identify slow-loading pages on your site, the interactivity of your content, and its stability.

Core Web Vitals (CWV) is a component of the new Google Page Experience search algorithm. In addition to the CWV criteria, Page Experience indicators include the ability to adapt sites to mobile phones, the absence of blocks that interfere with the perception of the content of the web resource, the presence of HTTPS and secure browsing.

The main goal of CWV is to rank resources that Internet users will be most comfortable interacting with. The new algorithm is aimed not at search robots, but at real people, to whom the site's contextual advertising is directed.

◐ LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) – the rendering time of the main part of the page content (a large text block or image);

◐ FID (First Input Delay) – shows how much time passes between the user's first action (click on any element) and the page's response to this action;

◐ CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) – the total shift of page elements during page loading.

The speed of loading a website was an important indicator before the update, but now Google will take this factor into account even more. If the site takes a long time to load, the user will go to another Internet resource, and this will be a bad indicator for you if you are engaged in PPC.

With this in mind, part of Google's new search algorithm , Largest Contentful Paint , sets a time limit for web resource loading. The optimal opening time is considered to be 2.5 seconds. The average value is from 2.5 to 4 seconds.

Sites that take longer than 4 seconds to open will be dropped in search engine results.

First Input Delay measures the time elapsed from the moment a site visitor first interacted with a page to the time the site responded to the request, which is an important factor when placing new Google ads on a site.

Websites should strive for a first-input latency of less than 100ms.

The average is between 100ms and 300ms. Anything longer is a negative number. To ensure that your first latency is less than 100ms, you need to get 75% of page loads across all mobile and desktop devices. Scrolling and zooming are not included in FID.

Cumulative Layout Shift is the latest component of the Google 2021 algorithm update . It checks the visual stability of a page – whether all elements load at the same time. CLS assesses how often users experience random content shifts on a website.

Core Web Vitals suggests that a good CLS is a result of up to 0.1.

A CLS score of 0.1 to 0.25 requires improvement. Above 0.25 is a low score. Such an unstable website has a chance of losing a large number of visitors because it is impossible to work with it comfortably.

Above will be sites that the Google algorithm considers to be the best according to the criteria mentioned above, which will also affect the influx of advertisers.

Google advertising will bring more profit to sites that are in the top positions of search engines. At the same time, many websites have already formed a circle of regular users, so even a lower position in the results will not affect how Google Ads advertising functioned on the site before the update.

A thorough study of the factors of the new update helps improve site performance, increase user trust, and distinguish your resource from competitors, so you should:

◐ Check your site in Google Lighthouse ;

◐ You can use negative tests to improve your position;

◐ It is better to adapt your resource for users.

Pre - processing will save you from frantic corrections after the update is launched, and contextual advertising in Google will not lose its positions.

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